In a 1966 letter to a Virginia school board threatening to ban the book, the author addressed the controversy.

"Surely it is plain to the simplest intelligence that 'To Kill a Mockingbird' spells out in words of seldom more than two syllables a code of honor and conduct, Christian in its ethic, that is the heritage of all Southerners," Lee wrote. "To hear that the novel is "immoral" has made me count the years between now and 1984, for I have yet to come across a better example of doublethink."

The novel's appeal reached further than the book's 288 pages.

A 1962 film of the same name garnered three Academy Awards, including one for lead actor Gregory Peck. For the past 25 years the work has been celebrated in Monroeville through a play adaptation presented by The Mockingbird Players.